


Pretty Face, Electric Soul

by kurisuo



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1920s, Alternative Universe - The Great Gatsby, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cheating, Infidelity, Inspired by The Great Gatsby, KrisHo - Freeform, M/M, Multi, POV First Person, Rating May Change, Same-Sex Marriage, Slow Updates, XiuChen - Freeform, XiuHan - Freeform, also the taoris is PLATONIC, baekyeon is minor, i don't care, i know fanfic readers hate this, idk if anyone dies yet, suhan - Freeform, tags are there just in case, the pov makes sense i promise
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-08-27 11:15:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16701463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kurisuo/pseuds/kurisuo
Summary: In the summer of 1922, Wu Yifan moves from the American Midwest to the exciting and flashy New York City. He settles in a small house next to the mansion of the mysterious Suho Kim. One day, Kris gets an invitation to one of Suho's famous house parties and soon enough he grows closer to the millionaire everyone is talking about. As the summer passes on, Yifan gets caught up in Suho's affairs as well as the drama consuming New York City's wealthy and elite.





	1. Young & Free

My mother is the wisest person I have ever known. She would always tell me, “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that not everyone has enjoyed the same advantages you’ve had.”

Out of every piece of advice she’s ever given me, this is what stands out to me the most. We were close, my mother and I, and of course I did my best to live up to her principles. As a result, I’ve always been inclined to reserve all judgment. Unfortunately, this gave everyone the impression that they were to free to share all their deepest, darkest secrets with me. It was almost unbearable when I got to college. So many guys were ready to confide with me, ready to show me the very worst part of themselves that they would never show anyone else. It wasn’t much, considering how repressed most guys were back then, and still are, but it was still enough to drive a guy crazy. I would use every excuse I could come up with to get out of becoming everyone’s human diary.

Even after all that, I still prided myself on being the most tolerant man I knew. Of course, mother made sure to remind me, and I would continue to remind myself, that not everyone was blessed with a sense of common decency. And no place proved this statement more than New York City, as I would eventually find out.

But let’s leave New York for later and go back to me. I come from a family with a fairly good social standing. The Wu are a prominent family here in the Midwest, going back quite a few generations. It all started when who-knows-how-many-greats-grandfather Jiaheng Wu came to Minnesota after getting lucky during the gold rush in California way back in the 1840s. He opened up a fine jewelry shop that Mother still runs to this day. My family insists that I’m a spitting image of the man, right down to the thick fuzzy eyebrows. The painting that hangs in my mother’s office is too faded to confirm or deny this.

I graduated from Yale in 1915, at the age of 21. And soon after I went off to Europe to take part in that bloody mess known as the Great War. I will not lie, it did fuck up the way I saw things. When I came back, even my hometown felt off and unreal. And so, I headed east to work in the bond business, of all things. My family was reluctant at first, but eventually, they gave me their blessing and Mom even promised me financial backing for a year. I left home and arrived in the spring. The year was 1922.

The initial plan was to live in the city, though I, a small-town boy, would feel out of place in such an urban area. So when one of my coworkers suggested that we live together in a house in one of the towns I just couldn’t refuse. It was small and the rent was low, but things didn’t work out how we expected them to. At the last minute, he had to go to Washington to work so I went to live in the house alone, save for my dog Rourou. Oh, and Do Kyungsoo as well. He was a short man with full heart-shaped lips who cooked and cleaned for me and would occasionally sing slow jazz tunes as he prepared my coffee. For the most part, he just did his work and kept to himself. I took great pleasure in teasing him about his average height; at 6 feet and 2 inches, I was taller than most and Kyungoo’s bitterness about this fact was just too entertaining to ignore.

Other than that, I was really lonely when I first moved in. It wasn’t until I had to help a lost tourist find his way to a nearby village when I realized that there was so much for me to do this summer. I studied hard with the help of all the new finance books I bought that stood proudly on my shelf. I also brought my art supplies from back home as well some new brushes and paints from the city. I want to use as much free time as I could to just relax and have fun with my painting. It wouldn’t be good for me to only study and work, after all.

On the north shore of Long Island, there were two unusual peninsulas that were shaped very much like fangs. The one on the east side of the bay was a bit more curved and slightly bigger than the one on the west side. Other than that they were practically mirror images of each other. I lived on the western side of the bay, a place known as Yutadari. It was said to be the lesser of the two fangs as far as wealth and class were concerned. My house was near the tip, sandwiched between two giant mansions. The one to my right was like a Chinese palace out of the stories Mom used to read to me. It was white with blue trim and even though it was a bit out of place with the more American mansions in the area, it still looked beautiful to me. My own place was mediocre by comparison, but at least I was able to enjoy a nice view of the lake and a partial view of one of my neighbor’s many imperial-style gardens, with the added benefit of being surrounded by all these rich people. And all I had to pay was a cheap rent of $80 a month.

Across the bay were the elegant mansions of Yutamigi. One fine summer day, I drove over there to have dinner with Kim Lu Han and his husband Kim Minseok. Han was my second cousin once removed and Minseok and I had gone to college together. And shortly after the war I spent a few days with them in Chicago.

Minseok was a man with impressive physical strength and many accomplishments. He was one of the best soccer players Yale had ever seen and even went on to play at the national level. I feel like he definitely peaked in college and everything in his life after that felt dull and unfulfilling. His family was extremely wealthy; in school, he would spent freely and without a care in the world. When he left Chicago and came east he made a breathtaking entrance; for example, he bought a couple of Thoroughbreds from Hwainun Lake. It amazed me that someone my age could make such a bold and expensive purchase.

I had absolutely no idea why they came to New York. I know they spent a good year in France and later just drifted along, going anywhere there were other young rich people. When Han and I were talking over the phone earlier today he told me that they were going to live here permanently but honestly, I didn’t believe it. I wasn’t sure about my cousin but I knew Minseok would not want to settle in any one place. Instead, he seemed like the type who would wander aimlessly in search of a thrill that would never compare to what he felt during his soccer games.

The evening was warm and a bit windy when I drove over to have dinner with a family member and a friend who were more like strangers to me. Their house was a beautiful Georgian-style mansion, built with dark gray brick coupled with a clean white trim. There it stood overlooking the bay, surrounded by neat gardens and a lawn that seemed to go on for about a quarter mile. The windows were open today and the cream-colored curtains flowed gently in the wind. I could see Minseok standing tall (about as tall as a man with a height of 5 feet 8 inches was able to stand) and proud on the porch.

His appearance wasn’t much different from our college years. His cheeks were not quite as round anymore and his dark curly hair was now in a side part instead of bouncing freely but overall very little had changed. The riding clothes he was wearing did nothing to hide his strong figure; if anything, they only emphasized it. He was the type who sweated a lot, so the white long-sleeve button-up he was wearing clung to his body like a second skin and showed off his abs and biceps. His body was nothing to be jealous of (I was but shhh). If anything about his appearance threw me off, it was his eyes. They were grey, and as cold as ever, but now they seemed to hold an emotion I didn’t know Minseok was capable of feeling: sadness. Before I could think about this further, he spoke.

“Evening, Yifan.” His voice as soft and childish and arrogant as it was seven years ago. His words were laced with a bitterness that seemed to be directed towards everyone, regardless of whether or not he liked them, and there had been people in college who hated his guts. This detail reminded me of my own relationship with Minseok back then. We weren’t really friends, but I got the feeling that he approved of me and wanted me to like him, though I am still not sure why.

We stood on his porch for a while, making light conversation.

“I really have a nice place here, don’t I?” he asked me, but it seemed like he wasn’t expecting me to actually respond. Sure enough, he suddenly gripped my arm and led me through a walkway, apparently towards a side entrance. We passed a small garden full of the reddest roses I have ever seen collectively giving off a scent so strong even I, with my tragically weak sense of smell, could notice it. I stared for a bit at the bay, admiring the way the water sparkled in the evening sun.

“Hey.” Minseok snapped his fingers in my face and I turned to look at him. I didn’t realize I had spaced out. “Come on Yifan let’s go inside.”

He let go and walked inside. I followed.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been planning this au for a while now and I'm glad I'm finally posting the first chapter. Shout out to @The_Consulting_Werewolf for putting up with my ramblings and for supporting this concept. Let me know what you guys think in the comments. [please be nice I'm sensitive :(( ]


	2. A Dinner So Fine

Minseok led me through a large hallway into a room strongly resembling a red velvet cake — I must be really hungry for my brain to come up with such a description — that was connected to the house by French windows on either end. They were wide open and showed off a view of the fresh green grass outside. A breeze entered the room and blew the pale curtains back and forth like the swinging of a pendulum, flying up toward the white ceiling and sweeping down over the burgundy rug. The only thing in the room that was completely still was a large divan couch, on which two men were lounging cooly, so loose and relaxed they were almost  _ floating _ . I stood there for a while simply listening to the  _ swish _ of the curtains against the wind. And SLAM! went the windows as Minseok closed them off and the wind in the room slowly died down, followed by the curtains falling gracefully to the floor. 

One of the men on the couch was unfamiliar to me. He was stretched as far as he could on his end of the divan, with one leg extended forward but still slightly bent and the other swinging lightly off the side. He had his arms behind his head and gazed at the ceiling with a blank expression. If he noticed me coming at all he showed no sign of it. This caught me so off guard I almost wanted to apologize for daring to interrupt his relaxation.

The other man, Han, got up and leaned forward, gripping the sofa back with one hand for support. He looked me up and down with a conceited look on his face, then burst into laughter. I laughed too, not because his laugh was contagious, but because his face right now looked absolutely ridiculous, and walked further into the room.

He placed his hand over mine and looked up at me. His bright brown eyes radiated a comforting warmth, holding a promise that there was no one else in the world he so wanted to see. 

He asked me a few questions, merely formalities, in that soft voice of his. The conversation was rather dull, but I let it carry on because his voice was just so nice to listen to. The words went up and down like an arrangement of notes, each sentence a unique melody you should appreciate in that moment because you may never hear it again. Somewhere in the conversation, he pointed out that the other man on the couch was from the Huang family. I almost missed it since I was just letting his voice wash over me in little waves.

I mentioned how I stopped for a day in Chicago on my way to New York.

“Oh do they miss me?” he cried out excitedly.

“I...um… yes, a-at least a dozen people send their love.”

“How gorgeous,” he muttered. 

“Oh, they’re absolutely  _ mourning _ ! They’re crying-”

“No!” He smirked at me.

“Yes, they’re wailing!”

“I don’t believe it!” At this point, he had let go of my hand and was again gripping the couch, this time with what I hoped was anticipation.  

“They’re screaming! They’re shouting ‘Kim Lu Han we can’t live without you!’” He giggled at how dramatic I was being.

“I’m p-paralyzed with happiness! Hey, let’s go back Minseok! Tomorrow!” Then, as an afterthought, he added, “You should see the baby.”

“I’d like to.”

“She’s sleeping upstairs. The cutest two-year-old you’ll ever meet. Wait… you’ve met her, right?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Ah, really? Well, you should see her. She-” he stopped when he saw Minseok come over and place his hand on my shoulder. 

“So Da Vinci,” he drawled out, “how are the paintings coming along?” 

“Actually I’m selling bonds now. With Jackson Wang’s agency.”

“Can’t say I’ve ever heard of him,” he said dismissively.

I truly didn’t give two shits whether he’s heard of my boss or not but I really didn’t like his attitude right now.

“Well, Minseok, maybe you’ll hear about him if you stay in the city.” 

“O-of course I’ll stay in New York, don’t you worry your pretty little head about that Yifan,” he spat out. He spared a glance at Han and turned back to me. “I’d be a damn idiot to live anywhere else.”

“Damn straight!” Mister Huang blurted out. I jumped and Minseok’s hand, which was still on my shoulder, jumped with me. He pulled back, shooting me an annoyed look. Apparently, Mister Huang was surprised just as much as I was; he quickly stood up from the couch with and let out a yawn, one that I’ll safely assume was fake, then proceeded to do a few stretches.

“I’m so stiff,” he whined, “I’ve been lying on that couch for as long as I can remember.” 

Han scoffed. “Well don’t blame me. I’ve been trying to get you to go to the city all afternoon.”

“Thanks but no thanks.” Mister Huang grinned down at the four cocktails that were just brought in. “I’m too busy with training, you know.”

“Are you really?” Minseok asked incredulously. “It’s a mystery how you manage to get anything done.” 

I looked at Mister Huang, wondering what they meant by training and getting stuff done. He was tall, almost as tall as me, and he was slender, but I could tell his muscles were well defined. His feline-like eyes, heavily lined with Kohl, looked at me with a polite curiosity. He had a sort of androgynous charm to him, so familiar… I wonder where I’ve seen him before. In a magazine, perhaps?

“So, I hear you live in Yutadari,” the young man asked me stiffly. 

Minseok rolled his eyes. “You’re out there mingling with those primitive new-money types, those social-ladder climbing wannabes…”

I chuckled nervously. “I just live in a humble little box for 80 a month, nothing worth mentioning..”

“You’re life is adorable!” Han beamed at me. 

“I know someone in Yutadari,” Mister Huang called out. He was leaning against one of the windows, facing us. 

“I don’t really know anyone that side of the bay.”

“Oh, but you must know Suho,” he said, one eyebrow raised coyly. 

“Suho?” Han’s smile faded fast. “What Suho?” It was clear to me that he was trying to appear nonchalant about this.

The room was beginning to feel uncomfortable. Before I could say that he was my neighbor, one of the butlers walked in and announced that dinner was ready. Minseok grabbed my arm for the second time that day and led me out of the room. My cousin and his friend walked ahead of us, heads high, backs straight.

The four of us walked out directly from the room onto a white porch facing the sunset. The breeze was in the last stages of dying out and the sun was just about done setting, painting the sky and the sea a pretty combination of pink, orange, and yellow, with some blue at the horizon. 

We all sat down and the food was brought out. The dinner dragged on, my cousin and Mister Huang filling the air with the sound of meaningless chatter. They were only putting the bare minimum of effort into this, knowing full well that the dinner would be over soon and eventually forgotten. Anything that was said was for the sake of keeping up appearances, nothing more, nothing less. Minseok ranted for a bit about how the traditional socioeconomic order was being threatened by lower-class people making their way to the top; other than that, he, too, was putting on a civilized act. He was just about done when the shrill ringing of the phone went off and one of the butlers left the porch and walked inside. 

Han took advantage of this interruption to launch into a story about the butler’s nose. Had it been anyone else, the story would’ve been a bore, but with that voice, Han was able to make it sound like an exciting tragedy. His face had been glowing softly in the evening sun, but the light slowly, almost reluctantly, left him, and soon enough it was dark.

The butler came back, made his way over to Minseok and whispered something in his ear. For a brief second, his face lit up, but soon that look of excitement was replaced by a scowl. He stood up, pushed in his chair, and went inside without saying anything. Something in Han seemed to change when Minseok left, and he started talking again, this time in a happy, chirpy tone. 

“I do love seeing you at my table, Yifan. You remind me of a rose, an absolute rose. Doesn’t he?” Han turned to Mister Huang for confirmation. “An absolute rose, right?”

This was a lie if I’ve ever heard one. Nothing about me was like a rose at all. But I could tell that he was trying his best to tell me he cared and enjoyed my presence. He expressed it poorly, but I had to give him credit for trying. Out of nowhere, Han threw his napkin on the table and with a short “I’m sorry,” walked inside.

I decided I should try to make light conversation until they came back. Pointedly ignoring the muffled yelling from the other room, I turned to Mister Huang. “Well, this Suho you spoke of, he’s my neighbor-”

“Don’t talk,” Mister Huang hissed, “I want to hear what happens.” He then stood up and walked to the French window, straining to catch every word. 

“Is something happening?”

“Why, I thought everybody knew!” He sounded surprised but remained focus on the task at hand. 

“I don’t.”

“Minseok’s got some guy in New York.”

“Some guy?” All I could do was dumbly repeat everything. 

He turned around and added, “You’d think he’d have the decency not to call during dinner time, right?” He laughed and sat back down. 

Han and Minseok walked back outside, and neither of them looked all that happy. Minseok tried starting a conversation about his horses and suggested taking me out to the stables to see them when the phone decided to ring again. I stared awkwardly at my plate, pretending to admire the smooth ceramic and intricate border. Try as we may, none of us could really ignore the our unofficial fifth guest ear-splitting desperation. The table was tense and uncomfortable with the incessant ringing serving as background noise for the next five minutes, and soon enough, dinner was finally over. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so the first time I tried updating this chapter it came out all fucked up (I told myself I should wait until morning so I could be more awake and check for errors better but NO I had to get it out as soon as possible smh). But thank you @The_Consulting_Werewolf for pointing it out you are my savior I swear. 
> 
> I'm really sorry about that and I'll try to be more careful in the future!


	3. Moonlit Shower

Even after such an uncomfortable dinner, the evening carried on. Minseok and Mister Huang went to the library, though I couldn’t help but notice the wide gap between them as they walked. Meanwhile, I put on my best attempt at an interested expression and followed Han out to the front. We sat down and I tried to make myself comfortable, though the night air felt tense.

Han stared into the dusk with his hand resting on his face, agitation rolling off of him in waves so strong I could almost see it. I decided I should try to get him to calm down a little, so I asked him some very basic questions about his daughter.

“So how’s-”

“Yifan,” he cut me off. “We’re really not that close, are we? Even though we’re cousins… I mean, you didn’t even go to my wedding!”

“Um… I was overseas still… fighting a war…”

“Oh, right,” he chuckled awkwardly. “Well let me tell you Yifan… It’s just-” He paused and took a deep breath. “Well, you see, I just think everything’s terrible in the end.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything… I’ve had a very bad time, Yifan. I’m pretty cynical about everything.”

It sounded like he wanted to say more, so I waited patiently for him to continue. However, he remained silent, so I tried to steer the conversation back to his daughter.

“So… um… your daughter… I suppose she talks and eats and everything?”

“Hyerim? Oh yes.” Han turned to me and I could see how blank his eyes were. “Would you like to know what I said when she was born?”

“Sure? I mean- yes, I’d like to.”

“It’ll explain why I feel this way about the world. Well, she was less than an hour old and Minseok was God knows where-” he turned around and glanced forlornly towards the house, “with God knows who. Our surrogate Guan Xiao Tong was passed out due to the anesthesia and as soon as the nurse was finished cleaning the baby up I asked if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and I felt so overwhelmed with relief when I realized how much she looked like me. ‘Alright,’ I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl.’ And I prayed to the good Lord above that she would be a fool- that’s the best thing a pretty person can be in this world. A beautiful little fool.”

His eyes flashed with anger and suddenly he stood up and let out a terrible shrieking that can hardly be considered laughter. In that moment, it felt like I was broken out of a spell I didn’t even know I had been under. Everything he said right now felt so insincere, and it made me feel uncomfortable. It was as though this entire evening so far was an elaborate act meant to bring out a certain kind of reaction from me. I waited for him to calm down, and sure enough, he turned to me with a most conceited smirk on his pretty face, as though he had established himself as part of an elite secret society that only people like himself and Minseok could belong to.

Han sat back down and when he turned to look at me again, his smirk was gone and in its place was his usual happy expression. “Come on Yifan. Let’s go back inside.”

* * *

The red velvet room- as I have affectionately dubbed it- was full of light. Mister Huang was on one end of the couch, reading a newspaper aloud in a voice so soft, so quiet, I almost didn’t think it was really coming from him. Minseok was on the other end, leaning, with an elbow on the armrest and a hand holding his chin up. The light from the lamp was reflecting quite nicely on his face, though his eyes were downcast.

As Han and I walked in, Mister Huang looked up, and he lifted his hand as a gesture for us to stop. He closed the newspaper and set it down next to him, then stood up and stretched. “Not that tonight wasn’t fun, Lu-ge, but I really should get going.” He gathered his things and made his way toward us. “It’s already ten o’clock and you _know_ I need my beauty sleep,” he whined.

“Zitao here has a tournament tomorrow,” Han explained to me, “at Westchester.”

“Oh so you’re Huang _Zitao_?” That’s why he looked so familiar to me! I remember seeing him on the covers of sporting magazines and his photographs alone had been very intimidating, though not necessarily unattractive. I’ve heard a few things about him, unpleasant things, but whatever they were I couldn’t be bothered to remember them.

“Good night,” Mister Huang murmured. “Wake me up at eight, okay?”

“I’ll need to go earlier then so that you actually get out of bed.”

“Oh come on Lu-ge don’t be like that. Anyway, I’ll be leaving. Good night, Mister Wu. I’ll see you around.”

“Of course you will. Ohh, you know what? I think I’ll arrange a marriage between you two! Lock you up in linen closets and push you out to sea in boats! And maybe I’ll-”

“Good night!” Mister Huang cut him off. “I’ll just make like I never heard anything.” He left the room and Han followed to see him off.

After a moment of silence, Minseok spoke. “He’s a good kid. They shouldn’t be letting him running around like that.”

“ _Who_ shouldn’t be letting him run around?” Han asked as he walked back in. His eyebrows were furrowed and his mouth was set in a hard line.

“His family.”

“His only family left is his father who's, like, a million years old already. Besides, Yifan will be looking after him, aren’t you, dearest cousin? Zitao’s spending a lot of weekends out here this summer. I think the family environment will do him some good.”

As soon as those words left his mouth, Han turned over to glare at Minseok, and Minseok glared right back. Not wanting things to escalate, I quickly asked if Mister Huang was from New York.

“Actually, he’s from Xiongtai City. We spent our childhood there, together. Our sweet, innocent-”

“Han what were you and Yifan talking about earlier when you were outside?” Minseok interrupted.

“Huh? Oh, I don’t remember. I think it had something to do with the economy and the social order. Yes, that’s it. It just came up out of nowhere and the next thing you know we-”

Minseok scoffed. “Don’t believe everything you hear, Yifan.”

I simply nodded and gathered my things to leave. The couple walked with me to the door and watched me from there, the light on the front porch casting a false cheerful glow on them. As I started the engine, Han suddenly called out to me.

“Wait! I forgot to ask you something important! Rumor has it that you’re engaged to someone out West.”

“Ah that’s right,” Minseok remarked softly. “We heard that you’re engaged now.”

“Lies and slander. I’m too poor…”

“But we heard it from a reliable source,” my cousin insisted, catching me off guard with how earnest he sounded. “We heard it from, like, three different people, so it must be true.”

I knew full well what they were talking about, but I most definitely am NOT engaged. In fact, part of the reason I had moved out here was because this stupid rumor got so widespread. I don’t know how it started, but many people back home were speculating that I could be engaged to a really close friend of mine. I couldn’t exactly stop talking to said friend because of some meaningless small town gossip but then again, I didn’t need everyone to falsely believe that I was getting married.

Their interest in my life was actually quite touching, but even so, my mind was running with confusion and maybe a tiny bit of disgust as I drove away from the Kim-Lu mansion. Han was different than I had expected and I can’t say I liked what I saw. However, I was more curious about Minseok. He had been an unbearable prick in the past and although he continued to act like a typical rich boy, there was something that felt really off, and it may have something to do with the guy he’s seeing in the city. His whole spiel about maintaining the social order felt like a complete farce, as though he were clinging to these classist values to convince everyone that he was still the same man they knew, but deep down in his heart he knew that was a lie.

* * *

 When I pulled up to my house in Yutadari, I drove my car into the shed and I climbed up to the roof. I sat there for a while, listening to the music of the night. The wind had died down a long time ago, leaving room for the rapid flapping of wings and the loud croaking of frogs to fill up the summer air. The silhouette of a stray cat caught my eye, and as I turned my head to track of it I realized I was not alone. About fifty feet away from me, a dark figure had emerged from my neighbor’s dock, standing there with his hands in his pockets and gazing up at the stars. Something about the way he carried himself, the way he stood there so confidently, told me that it was Suho himself, out to determine what part of our small window of the universe was free for him to claim.

I was tempted to call out to him. Mister Huang had mentioned him earlier today, and I figured now was a good time to introduce myself. But just as I was working up the nerve to go talk to him, he moved suddenly, which I took as a sign of him wanting to be left alone. He reached out towards the water, and even though I was pretty far away from him, I could still see how badly he was shaking. I looked out across the bay, and saw nothing but a single green light. I turned back to look at Suho, but he was already gone, and I was alone in the darkness once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last two paragraphs were so painful to write... I kept adding sentences and taking others away and changing the words and the phrasing and it was just a mess... I had fun with the rest of the chapter tho lol. Hope you guys enjoyed!
> 
> Also when I was writing that convo between Yifan and Han I had to look at the original and it annoyed me so much like Daisy please he was in a war he could've died is it really that surprising that he wasn't gonna be able to go to your stupid wedding? idk I think my version came out kinda awkward but some of it is intentional lol
> 
> ok i triple-checked and i'm crossing my fingers hoping there's no mistakes,,,


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